Originally posted by BBMW:It seems to me that they're only catching a tiny percentage of the perps. It appears that the perps do this for years without getting caught.

I don't know how much they even investigate this stuff.

Years ago my card was used online fraudulently. I called the place it was used at and it turned out to be an online seller who made mix CDs. One of a kind stuff, nothing you could buy in a store or anything. Basically if someone had one they would have had to get it from this guy.

The guy told me the name and shipping address that he sent the package to, and gave me the tracking number. Sounds great right? I know when the package is going to deliver and where to. I did all the hard work.

So I call the police and try to tell them everything I have. My first issue was finding someone who gave a shit. The local police said it was the jurisdiction of the police where the stuff was being delivered. Those police said it was not their department, but the county police. The county police said it was a sheriffs problem, the sheriff told me it was a FBI issue since the fraud took place over state lines. The FBI told me it was my county police and they told me that it was my county sheriff who told me it was my local police, which was where I started. After a few hours an deputy from the county called me back and told me he could file a report.

I told him I had all the info of when the package was going to be delivered and where. He told me that what I needed to do was go to the county courthouse and get in front of a judge and get a warrant for the guys arrest. Then I needed to go to the address and stake the location out and when I spotted the guy taking the package I should call 911 and tell them that I knew the location of someone with a warrant out for their arrest.

Not being a police officer and not feeling the desire to go to the trouble I let it drop. My bank covered the loss of course.

In my mind, the best way to stop this isn't through the criminal justice system.

Basically this happens because it's less expensive for the banks/CC companies to cover the fraud expense, than to put in place the technology and procedures to stop it. The feds need to put in place rules that make it very expensive for the CC companies to not stop it. I'd do something like forcing the CC companies to report what they write off in fraud, and fining them companies several times that as a penalty, until it becomes expensive enough for them to fix the problem.

What's interesting is it has gotten down to the level of independents doing it. It sounds like a franchise system being passed along much like the donut business was propagated among Cambodians.

"It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual." Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, 1946.

Since I can't open the video, not sure what this is about, however, twice in the last few months, we have gotten what are bogus e-mails purporting to be from Bank of America. They are very convincing looking with correct BOA logos and colors.The first said there was a problem with the account and they needed to "re-confirm" information. The one a few days ago said they suspected fraud transactions on the account and listed three transactions for hundreds of dollars on April 10. In both cases, I called the 800 number on the card and they confirmed they were bogus. Interestingly, BOA didn't seem too concerned about it. They were sort of like, "well, shit happens. Thanks for the call."